Junior Boys
'Begone Dull Care'
Fussily polished synth pop loses its quirky flair.
Beware inserting the word dull in the title of your third album. These tracks by singer Jeremy Greenspan and programmer Matt Didemus reveal acute detailing: cresting arpeggios on "Work," pedal-steel blossoms on "Dull to Pause" (that word again), a squelch of '80s boogie underpinning "Hazel." But gone are the tricky negative-space productions of their stunning debut, and even the melancholia of 2006's So This Is Goodbye is tempered. It leaves us with a streamlined New Romantic sound, but one that at times feels like emotional Teflon.
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